What have you made lately?

Projects

Quartet of freshly minted log reindeer — After building a single log reindeer named Rudy last year, I decided to get serious this past holiday season and crank out a bunch of other Rudy’s in the woodshop/reindeer factory. Why you ask? Well, I had time on my hands, I liked how Rudy livened up the yard, and the numerous branches and downed […]

Rudy the Reindeer Factory

This entry was posted in Misc Projects on February 3, 2025 by woodbin

DIY dollhouse bookcase — Here is a dollhouse bookcase that I was commissioned to build for my granddaughter by her parents. It’s made from 1/2″ whitewood sanded plywood that I picked up at Lowes. It’s basically very smooth, void-free plywood with a white primer coat. The side trim and base moulding are made from 3/4″ white pine. The materials […]

Dollhouse Bookcase

This entry was posted in Projects and tagged childrens furniture dollhouse bookcase on December 9, 2024 by woodbin

Gravity defying wine holders — I decided to make an assortment of “gravity defying” wine bottle holders as Christmas gifts last year. The basic idea is an angled piece of wood with a hole in it to hold a bottle of wine in a position that seemingly defies the known laws of physics. One would think the contraption would topple […]

Gravity Defying Wine Bottle Holders

This entry was posted in Projects on January 21, 2024 by woodbin

Portable plywood cutting table supports a full sheet of plywood — I wish I had made this plywood cutting table a long time ago. It makes quick work of breaking down a piece of plywood into more manageable sizes, especially if using a track saw. Perhaps the best feature of the table is that it is portable, allowing it to be assembled in an area with […]

Plywood Cutting Table

This entry was posted in Jigs Projects on April 21, 2018 by Bill Kovalick

The requirements for this wishing well were rather simple: it had to be relatively compact but large enough to cover an unsightly well pipe, but also inexpensive and easy to make. Of course, I also wanted it to look half-decent. I think I succeeded on all counts. The well was built over the course of a […]

Simple Wishing Well

This entry was posted in Projects on August 3, 2017 by Bill Kovalick

Flex-drum sanding station made from a repurposed variable speed grinder — I recently decided to try my at intarsia and I quickly realized that it involves lots of sanding. Much of this sanding involves rounding the edges of pieces in order to create a 3D effect and perhaps the best way to perform this task is with either a flex or pneumatic sanding drum. The softness of […]

Intarsia Flex Drum Sanding Station

This entry was posted in Jigs Projects Tools on November 10, 2016 by Bill Kovalick

Garden bench from reclaimed redwood lumber — My big project over the latter part of winter was this outdoor bench made from reclaimed redwood. The lumber for the bench came from an older, weather-beaten bench that had been exposed to the elements for 20+ years. When I realized the bench was made from relatively expensive and rare redwood (possibly old-growth), I decided it […]

Reclaimed Redwood Bench

This entry was posted in Projects Wood on July 16, 2016 by Bill Kovalick

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing..." — When I built this cedar bird house last year, I was hopeful that it would attract blue birds or some other colorful song birds. So I was somewhat excited to see a “bird” sticking his head out of the house as I was doing some yard work recently. But as I got closer to the house I realized the bird was […]

Frogs in the Bird House

This entry was posted in Projects on June 6, 2016 by Bill Kovalick

Bluebird house with 1-1/2" diameter double thickness hole — What to make when you have left over wood from an Adirondack side table project that was made from left overs from an Adirondack chair project? How about bird houses? In fact, I had enough left over cedar and cypress to make three bird houses. So that’s what I did. The houses were sized to […]

Bluebird Houses

This entry was posted in Projects on February 18, 2016 by Bill Kovalick

Adirondack chair and matching table ready for finishing — After building some Adirondack chairs, I decided that an accompanying side table would be an ideal mini-project for using up the left over cedar lumber. So, I looked around a bit to get some ideas and settled on a fairly simple design that is similar to one that Norm Abram used but with longer legs. […]

Adirondack Side Table

This entry was posted in Projects on February 5, 2016 by Bill Kovalick

All season Adirondack chair made from cypress — What could be better on a hot summer day than a cold drink, a good book, and a quiet, shady spot to read? How about a comfortable Adirondack chair? Exactly. After mulling it over for a number of years, I finally got around to building some Adirondack chairs this past Fall. Yes, a bit late […]

Adirondack Chairs

This entry was posted in Projects on December 22, 2015 by Bill Kovalick

Dryer booster fan with lint trap — This isn’t exactly a woodworking project although it did require a bit of cabinet re-purposing. If you’re looking to glean some woodworking wisdom, you may want to move on. But if you’re dealing with a clothes dryer that doesn’t dry very well, you may find this information helpful. We noticed that over time, it was […]

Dryer Booster Fan

This entry was posted in Projects on November 27, 2015 by Bill Kovalick

Entertainment center housing a 1980's era TV and stereo system — Most of the furniture from my early woodworking ventures had a red oak theme to it and this entertainment center was no exception. It was made in the late 1980’s and is fairly representative of entertainment centers of that time: an opening to house a nice sized TV (32″ was large back then), a series […]

Oak Entertainment Center

This entry was posted in Projects on October 21, 2015 by Bill Kovalick

Oversized oak bookshelf — When I made this bookcase some years back, I built it to fit a specific area of an office wall. However, if I were to do it again, I would have made two narrower bookcases rather than one wide unit. At the time, my thinking was that a single wide unit would be the most […]

Over-sized Oak Bookcase

This entry was posted in Projects on October 16, 2015 by Bill Kovalick

Chip the beagle lazing the day away in his well-worn doghouse — From the back of the rack… I made this dog house for our family beagle Chip (aka, Chipper) way back in the 70’s. It was one of my earliest woodworking projects. At the time this photo was taken, the dog house had seen several years of service – it was starting to fray a bit at the […]

Chip’s Dog House

This entry was posted in Projects on September 10, 2015 by Bill Kovalick

Oak-walnut floor lamp — Here is a floor lamp that I built in the early 1990’s. I was in a lamp building frenzy back in those days and this one was perhaps my crowning achievement. It features a tapered pole made from laminated solid red oak and walnut and tapered red oak legs that attach to the base of the […]

Oak Walnut Floor Lamp

This entry was posted in Joinery Projects on August 31, 2015 by Bill Kovalick

Solid oak coat rack — Some years back, the family was growing and we were running low on coat/jacket hanging options. I decided it was high time to make a coat rack. Or two. I realized we needed something that was functional, able to hold roughly 10 items at a time, but not too utilitarian. Something that could be proudly displayed […]

Coat Rack

This entry was posted in Projects on August 20, 2015 by Bill Kovalick

A mini-mallet makes a great tree ornament! — Having made several full-size mallets for general purpose shop use, I decided to make some mini-mallets. My initial thinking was that they could be used as tree ornaments, and that’s exactly what I did with a couple mallets in our home. I also discovered they work well as crab mallets, office desk knick-knacks, gavels for calling […]

Mini Mallets

This entry was posted in Projects on August 11, 2015 by Bill Kovalick